Reflection
by Ghetto-Kaiba09
Summary: Astral just wants to know what he looks like.


Hello, all! I've been quite busy lately with work and school and whatnot, but this idea just popped into my head so I decided to take the time to write it before I forgot it!

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Yuma stood in front of the bathroom mirror blowdrying his damp hair. This was just the beginning of his early morning routine. He felt relieved that he could take his time getting ready as it was the weekend because he always had quite a bit of trouble waking up on time for school. Once his hair retained its normal gravity-defying state, he set down the hairdryer and grabbed a brush, removing any knots from his pink and black locks before leaning in closer to the mirror to examine his handy work.

"Eh, good enough." He said to himself. A small twinkle of light from the key signified that Astral had arrived, although Yuma didn't notice as he was still focused on looking at himself in the mirror.

"Good morning, Yuma." Astral said politely, once again retaining his usual position behind the boy: arms crossed, vacant expression.

Yuma jumped at the sudden voice. "Geez, Astral! Why do you have to scare me all the time like that?"

Astral laughed under his breath. "You should be accustomed to it by now."

"Yeah, well, I couldn't see you back there." Yuma said, motioning towards the mirror. Inside of the glass was the reflection of Yuma and the bathroom, but not Astral.

Astral cocked his head as he stared into the mirror. He peered straight into where his reflection was supposed to be, but all that stared back was the image of the towel rack and a painting on the wall.

Astral sighed. He never really put his attention into the fact that he had never seen himself before. He didn't even know what he looked like, other than what Yuma had briefly described. Blue skin. When he held out his hands, he could see that. Yuma had also said something about his eyes…two different colors? And his hair…he had hair, right?

"Astral?" Yuma snapped the spirit out of his daze. "What's wrong?"

Astral held a hand to his own face and lightly rubbed his cheek. He moved the hand higher and touched his forehead, fingertips running over what felt like gems encrusted into his skin.

"Are you feeling alright, Astral?" Yuma asked, noting the spirit's odd movements. He then followed where Astral's eyes were looking and turned his head to stare into the mirror along with him. He began to catch on to what Astral might have been thinking. Inside of the mirror was himself, but not Astral.

Yuma tried to make light of the situation as he knew how sensitive Astral was sometimes.

"Don't worry, Astral. You're not the only thing without a reflection! Vampires don't have reflections. Remember that movie we watched about the vampires? They were pretty cool, huh? Astral…?"

Yuma watched as Astral continued to gaze into the mirror, a saddened and confused expression on his face. As much as he and Astral bickered, Yuma still felt sorry for the lonely spirit. An idea suddenly popped into his head.

"Hey, Astral!" he called "I know! What if I draw a picture of you?"

Astral crossed his arms again and looked down at Yuma. After a few moments, he smiled.

"I'd like that." He commented quietly, earning a happy smile from the young boy.

"Alright, cool, follow me!" Yuma said, waving for Astral to follow him as he exited the bathroom and retreated to his room. Once there, he rummaged through his belongings until he found a piece of paper and a box of markers. He pulled a blue one from the box and turned to Astral.

"Alright, stand still. Don't cross your arms, 'cause then I can't see your chest."

Astral did as Yuma instructed and remained perfectly still, his arms at his sides and a stoic expression returning to his face. He watched as Yuma sketched him. Looking up at him, then down at the paper. Then back up, then back down. Leaning in to get a closer look, then leaning back to make sure he didn't miss anything. He watched as Yuma replaced the blue marker with a green one. Green? What part of him was green? He then briefly looked down at the markings on his chest and legs. Oh! Those were green. Now a yellow marker was pulled from the box. It was only used for a second before the blue one was brought out again. He was then instructed by Yuma to turn his head from side to side so that the boy could get a good look at his hair. Yuma had made jokes about his hair before. He hoped it didn't look _that_ funny. After what seemed like forever, Yuma set the marker down on the floor and jumped up from where he had been sitting.

"What do you think, Astral? Come here, take a look." Yuma said, holding the paper out to the blue spirit.

Astral floated forward towards the boy and examined the drawing in his hands.

Blue skin. He already knew that. His matching blue hair shooting in spikes off of his head. He remembered a time when Yuma had made fun of his hair. He compared it to something called "Cool Whip". Astral didn't know what that was. Now that he had actually gotten to see his hair, he realized Yuma was right. It _was_ kind of funny. Astral smiled and laughed quietly to himself, not noticing a smiled appearing on Yuma's face as well. The earrings. Astral knew he had them on because he could feel them when he moved his head, but he had never seen them. He saw the blue gems embedded into his forehead that he had felt earlier. As he looked more at the drawing, he realized his body was covered in them! What purpose did they serve? Astral wrinkled his nose slightly as he eyed the green tattoos on his face. He knew he had them on other areas of his body, but not his face. The final thing he noted were his eyes. Yuma had only colored the left eye yellow, while the other remained white. Were both of his eyes really two different colors, or was it the glowing aura around his body that made them appear this way? Astral did wonder.

Yuma smiled as he saw Astral running his hands over his face and smiling. He decided to ask again:

"Well, Astral? What do you think?"

Astral looked passed the paper and smiled down at Yuma.

"Amazing." He responded quietly. Yuma set the paper down on his desk to allow Astral to examine it some more.

Yuma had never realized how something so simple could mean so much to someone else. He got to look in a mirror and see himself everyday, but maybe there were people out there that couldn't. And not just Astral, _real_ people. He noted that from then on he would never take anything for granted again.

"Thank you, Yuma." Astral said sincerely.

Yuma smiled. "No problem."

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Well, there you have it! I hope you enjoyed that. Until next time!


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